meganboler.net » Censorship

Winnipeg IndyMedia Shut Down

adam — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:32:11 +0000

To be honest, I don’t know the story behind the Winnipeg IndyMedia operation being closed. If you have any info on the story please share in the comments.

All I know thus far is that they claim they closed due to a lack of volunteers, but social media site Reddit has a submission implying that there is more to the story involving the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Nike: behaving badly

kelly — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:15:40 +0000

According to the Technically Incorrect blog at CNET, Nike, by asking the Chinese gov’t to reveal the name of the person who posted to a yahoo msg board and accused to company of having something to do with Liu Xiang’s, a famed Chinese hurdler, withdrawal from the event is behaving like a

granny who’s just had her handbag stolen by a tiny teenager and asked a big, burly policeman to find the man who took it? The company’s actions serve only to highlight the issue more, when letting a sleeping blog lie might have allowed for this little conspiracy theory to waft its way into the annals of obscurity.

And what does Nike think, the Chinese gov’t will simply waggle its finger at the olympic conspiracy theorist, all the imprisoned Chinese bloggers certainly may beg to differ.

Fascist State Blocks Pirates

adam — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:23:39 +0000

arrrrrrrrr

Ok, the title is a little exaggeration – but only a little. Recently the Italian government has blocked access to The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Bay is a site that allows people to download torrent files of popular entertainment and software. They even have comic books. The thing is that The Pirate Bay hosts only the torrent files and not the illegal content itself, which makes it rather ridicolous to think that blocking the site will stop piracy.

Torrent files are also used for legit purposes as well. i won’t list them all here, but you can find more info on legit torrents here.

Popular Swedish file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay has been blocked by most of the major Italian Internet service providers, the company said in a note on its blog.

The action follows Italian law enforcement’s actions in last month to shut down Colombo-BT.org, which the IFPI called the largest BitTorrent site in the country and which offered links to 390,000 music and 500,000 movie files.

For its part, The Pirate Bay said it has already changed IP for the site, which the group said should return access to half of the ISPs.

It also recommended Italians switch their DNS to OpenDNS, “so they can bypass their ISP filters,” and directed users to LaBaia.org (Italian for “The Bay”), which is operational.

Create a video describing Bill C61 in 61 seconds

adam — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:39:17 +0000

You can do it! More information can be found here.

From Michael Geist:
“Tens of thousands of Canadians have spoken out against Bill C-61 over the past month. In addition to the letters, MP meetings, and town halls, many have created mashups, videos, comics, posters, photos, and other creative art to express their disappointment and concern with Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s plan for copyright in Canada. To build on this creativity, the Fair Copyright for Canada group is launching a new YouTube video competition. C-61 in 61 Seconds invites everyone to post a video – whether rant, mashup, or something new – on the copyright bill.”

Via Boing

Chinese Internet censorship: An inside look

kelly — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:15:30 +0000

James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, has experienced “The Great Firewall of China” firsthand, an experience people from around the world will share this summer when the Olympics comes to that country. Based in Beijing, Fallows has researched the underlying technology that the Chinese use for Internet censorship, and he explained it in a recent article titled “The Connection Has Been Reset.”

link

Egypt: Coincide Hosting the Largest Communication Conference in Africa, an opposition’s Web Site is being Blocked

kelly — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:11:09 +0000

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said today, that the website of the Egyptian Movement for Change:Kefaya “http://Harakamasria.org” was blocked in Egypt and the Internet users who have access to Internet through the T-Data Company, the largest Internet Service Providers in Egypt, which is controlled by the Egyptian Government since 4th May.

Charges against Steven Kurtz finally dropped….

kelly — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:13:29 +0000

Turns out he is an artist and NOT a bioterrorist: A judge threw out charges Monday against a college art professor accused of improperly obtaining biological materials for an exhibit protesting U.S. government food policies.U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara ruled that the 2004 mail and wire fraud indictment against Steven Kurtz, a University at Buffalo professor, was ”insufficient on its face.”

Kurtz is a founding member of the Critical Art Ensemble, which has used human DNA and other biological materials in works intended to draw attention to political and social issues. His arrest drew protests from artists in several countries who called the charges an intrusion on artistic freedom. link

fitna removed from liveleak

kelly — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:07:57 +0000

controversial dutch film fitna has been removed from liveleak after threats were made against the staff: “Meanwhile, the Iranian government has summoned the Dutch ambassador in order to register protest against the film. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has published an article in the Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, calling on people ‘to keep their head[s] cool and relations warm’. “

China blocks YouTube as protests spread in Tibet

kelly — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:06:13 +0000

One BoingBoing reader writes: ” I am visiting Beijing on business, and staying at a hotel that caters to Westerners. There have been reports that China was loosening controls on the media ahead of the Olympic games, in order to give visitors the impression that the media is unrestricted, but that is not the case in the last day. While watching CNN in my hotel room, the station goes dark during the top-of-the-hour news flash on the riots, then returns when the synopsis of “what’s to come” is given about other stories, and then goes dark again while the coverage switches to Lhasa.”